You’re Invited! Business Unusual: A Creative Conversation about Organizational Change

Join the EmcArts/ArtsFwd team and invited guests in NYC on Thursday, October 25, 2012, 7:00pm-9:00pm, for a Creative Conversation about why organizational change matters, how it works, the barriers, and how it impacts our work and our communities.

ArtsFwd is a great way to share and learn from each other online about strategies for change, but we’re excited to move the conversation off-line for our New York City followers.

We hope you’ll join us! This is a FREE event. Wine and light refreshments will be served!

Organizational change is a real challenge, but it’s essential, given the radical new demands that face arts organizations today.

The conversation is called ‘Business Unusual’ because we’ll be focusing on change that goes beyond improving business-as-usual. You’ll get the inside scoop on change initiatives that test out truly unconventional strategies, require a deep questioning of assumptions, and achieve surprising results.

Meghan McDermott from Global Action Project, April Lee from DIA: Beacon, Lily Binns of Pilobolus and others will give short, dynamic presentations about how change works in their organizations and then we’ll discuss the successful ingredients to creating change and how frameworks can facilitate.

The conversation is open to anyone with an interest in change, innovation, adaptive capacities, and what it takes to make organizations thrive, including: practitioners, service providers, policy makers, academics, activists, and students.

Speaker Bios:

Lily Binns is the Co-Executive Director of Pilobolus, where she leads groups working on strategic planning, change management, development, branding, and communications, as well as collaborating on artistic and educational planning. Now entering its 42nd year, Pilobolus has transformed from avant garde dance company into an international entertainment organization, collaborating with diverse artists and thinkers, like Art Spiegelman, OK Go, Radiolab, the MIT Distributed Robotics Laboratory, the creators of SpongeBob SquarePants, and many more. Pilobolus was founded on a commitment to collective process, and its mission to make art through the cultivation of community remains the driving force of its creative evolution.

April Lee is the Arts Education Associate at Dia Art Foundation, where she runs all education programs in Beacon and NYC, as well as public programs at Dia:Beacon. Dia:Beacon is located in Beacon, NY and houses Dia Art Foundation’s art collection from the 1960s to the present. The museum, which occupies a former Nabisco printing factory, features installations of works by some of the most significant artists of the last half century, as well as special exhibitions, new commissions, and public and education programs.

Meghan McDermott is the Executive Director at Global Action Project. Founded in 1991, Global Action Project has provided media-arts and leadership education for thousands of youth living in underserved communities across New York City and the country. Global Action Project’s mission is to work with young people most affected by injustice to build the knowledge, tools, and relationships needed to create media for community power, cultural expression, and political change.

EmcArts / ArtsFwd Team:

The Conversation will be hosted by Karina Mangu-Ward (Director of Activating Innovation), Liz Dreyer (Manager of National Programs), Jonas Cartano (Director of Community Initiatives), and Piama Habibullah (Communications Manager & Online Producer).

How I wish I could attend! But I am in Spokane, Washington. I will encourage an associate to attend if possible. If any papers result from this event, I would enjoy having access. Thanks for your efforts,

ArtsFwd made possible with the support of our sponsors and partners

EmcArts Inc. is a social enterprise for learning and innovation in the arts. We serve as a nonprofit intermediary for many arts funders, and as a service organization for the arts field around innovation. We exist to strengthen the capacities and effectiveness of nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, serving their needs in the design and management of innovative change, and assisting them in building their adaptive capacity. Find out more.